House of Gucci

House of Gucci is a 2021 American biographical crime drama film directed by Ridley Scott, based on the 2001 book The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed by Sara Gay Forden. The film follows Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga) and Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver) as their romance transforms into a fight for control of the Italian fashion brand Gucci. Jared Leto, Jeremy Irons, Jack Huston, Salma Hayek and Al Pacino also star.

Scott wanted to make a film about the Gucci dynasty after acquiring rights to Forden's book in the early 2000s. The project languished for several years, with several directors and actors rumored to be considered before Scott and Gaga became officially attached in November 2019. Much of the remaining cast joined the following summer, and filming began in Italy, lasting from February through May 2021.

The world premiere of House of Gucci was held at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London on November 9, 2021. It was theatrically released in the United States on November 24, 2021. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the cast's performances but criticized the inconsistent tone and editing. Gaga and Leto were nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award, Critics' Choice Award, and Satellite Award for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor, respectively, while Gaga also received nominations for the Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award. The film also earned a nomination at the 94th Academy Awards for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. It grossed more than $153 million against a $75 million budget.

Plot

In Italy in 1978, Patrizia Reggiani is the office manager of her father's small trucking firm. At a party, she meets Maurizio Gucci, a law student and heir to a 50% interest in the Gucci fashion house through his father Rodolfo. Patrizia aggressively pursues the awkward Maurizio, charming him into a romantic relationship.

Rodolfo warns Maurizio that Patrizia is after only his wealth, and tells him that he will disinherit him if he marries Patrizia. Maurizio chooses Patrizia over his connection to Gucci, leaving the family. Patrizia and Maurizio marry, and he is hired by the trucking company.

When Patrizia becomes pregnant, she considers her child to be an avenue for familial reconciliation, and lets that information slip to Maurizio's uncle Aldo, who is delighted and takes the couple under his wing.

Aldo introduces Patrizia to his eccentric son Paolo, who aspires to be a designer within Gucci despite his apparent lack of talent. Aldo helps Maurizio and a terminally ill Rodolfo reconcile shortly before the latter's death. Rodolfo returns Maurizio to his will, but, before he dies, fails to sign the document bequeathing to him the 50% interest in Gucci shares, so Patrizia forges Rodolfo's signature on Rodolfo's updated testament.

Patrizia devises a plot to obtain a controlling interest in Gucci by acquiring some of Aldo's and Paolo's shares (the other 50%). She clashes with Aldo over the firm's clandestine sale of cheap "fake" Gucci products on the black market, and consults Giuseppina "Pina", a psychic, for guidance on how to manipulate Maurizio, who has little interest in Gucci, into taking a more active role within the company.

Paolo acquires proof that Aldo has been evading taxes in the United States. He gives the info to Patrizia in exchange for her promise that he be allowed to design his own product line. Aldo is arrested by the IRS and sentenced to a year and a day in prison.

Patrizia lies to the Italian police and tells them that Paolo is not authorized to use the Gucci trademark, so they stop his fashion show by force. Patrizia and Maurizio ask Paolo to sell his shares to them, but he rebuffs and cuts ties with them.

Italian police search Maurizio's, attempting to arrest him for forging Rodolfo's signature. His family flees to Switzerland, where Maurizio meets his old friend Paola Franchi. After an argument between Maurizio and Patrizia, he decides that he is tired of his wife's influence on him and the company. He orders his wife and daughter to return to Italy, and begins an affair with Paola, which Pina senses.

When Maurizio's business plans harm the company, he seeks assistance from investment firm Investcorp, through which he hatches a scheme to acquire shares of the company from a now-impoverished Paolo. Aldo returns from prison and immediately realizes what Paolo has done. When Investcorp offers to buy out Aldo, he refuses until Maurizio reveals himself to be the deal's instigator. Dejected, Aldo sells the shares and cuts contact with Maurizio.

Patrizia attempts a reconciliation with Maurizio, but he flatly ignores her. He soon asks her for a divorce through his longtime assistant Domenico De Sole, a request that she refuses. Maurizio recruits up-and-coming designer Tom Ford to revitalize the company's image through a new line. His products are successful, but Maurizio has so thoroughly mismanaged the company that, by 1995, Investcorp's leaders feel compelled to buy him out, replacing him with Tom and Domenico.

Patrizia eventually grows so furious with Maurizio that she asks Pina to help her assassinate him, so Pina puts her in contact with two hitmen. A few days later, they shoot Maurizio to death in broad daylight outside his office.

Patrizia takes her husband's last name while announcing herself in court, indicating that she still considers herself to be a Gucci, even if the law does not.

Patrizia, Pina and the hitmen are sentenced to long prison terms following their arrests for murder. Aldo dies of prostate cancer in 1990, and Paolo dies in poverty shortly following the sale of their shares to Maurizio. Gucci is fully acquired by Investcorp, and continues to be successfully managed. No Gucci family members remain at the company.

Cast

Production

Development

In June 2006, Ridley Scott was set to direct a film for Paramount Pictures about the downfall of the Gucci family dynasty, with Andrea Berloff writing the script, despite the family's dismissal of the project, with Angelina Jolie and Leonardo DiCaprio rumored to play Patrizia Reggiani and Maurizio Gucci. In February 2012, Scott's daughter Jordan Scott had replaced him as director and was in talks with Penélope Cruz to play Reggiani. In November 2016, Wong Kar-wai took over as director from Jordan Scott, with Charles Randolph writing alongside Berloff, and Margot Robbie now considered to play Reggiani. In November 2019, Ridley Scott was again set to direct the film, with Roberto Bentivegna writing the script, and Lady Gaga set to star. According to the Gucci CEO, Marco Bizzarri, the fashion house cooperated with the production and gave them full access to their archives for wardrobe and props.

Gaga explained that she took into account how her longtime friend Tony Bennett "feels about Italians being represented in film in terms of crime", and aspired to "make a real person out of Patrizia, not a caricature". To achieve that, she studied Reggiani's vocal cadence and attitude. She explained, "I felt the best way to honor Maurizio and Italians was for my performance to be authentic, from the perspective of a woman. Not an Italian-American woman, but an Italian woman." She stayed in character for 18 months, speaking with an accent for nine months during that period. She also ad-libbed many of her lines, including the film's iconic quote, "Father, son and House of Gucci", which went viral after the release of the film's first trailer.

Casting

In November 2019, it was announced that Gaga would play Reggiani. In April 2020, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquired the rights to the film. By August, Adam Driver, Jared Leto, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Jack Huston and Reeve Carney had entered negotiations to join the cast. Driver, Leto, Pacino and De Niro were confirmed by October. Huston and Carney were confirmed in December, along with Jeremy Irons, while De Niro had exited the film. Dariusz Wolski announced his involvement as cinematographer that same month. Camille Cottin joined the cast in January 2021. In March, Mădălina Diana Ghenea, Mehdi Nebbou and Miloud Mourad Benamara were added to the cast, along with Salma Hayek, who was married to the CEO of Gucci's parent company, François-Henri Pinault.

Filming

In August 2020, it was reported that filming was expected to begin when Scott completed production of The Last Duel (2021). On February 3, 2021, Leto said that the film was still in the pre-production phase, and that they would start shooting in Italy in the coming weeks. Principal photography began in Rome at the end of February, with COVID-19 safety precautions in place.

Several scenes were filmed in early March in the cities of Gressoney-Saint-Jean and Gressoney-La-Trinité, specifically in the Italian Alps in the Aosta Valley, which were used to create the tourist complex of St. Moritz in Switzerland. Filming also took place in other locations, such as Florence, Lake Como (at Villa del Balbiano) and Milan, including the Villa Necchi Campiglio (previously featured in the film I Am Love). At the end of March, filming returned to Rome to shoot scenes at Via Condotti. Filming wrapped on May 8.